In a shabby guest room, a diminutive old man silently gazed down at the young man lying on the bed.
Jin Taekyung of the Jin Family of Taiyuan.
Though he had yet to regain consciousness, Jin Taekyung’s face looked peaceful. At a glance, he might have been sound asleep.
He took the Flame Divine Palm, and this is all he suffered?
Jeok Cheongang clicked his tongue inwardly.
The technique had been executed by his own hand—a Supreme Peak martial art.
He had held back, but even so, its power was not something a young punk who had only just broken through to Peak should have been able to withstand.
There was only one possible answer, and Jeok Cheongang already knew what it was.
This boy has cultivated the same kind of Scorching Yang Qi as I have.
But not all Scorching Yang Qi was the same.
In some ways, internal energy resembled a weapon. Its essence was one, but it could take many forms.
Advanced cultivation techniques each displayed their own distinct characteristics, like Huashan’s Zaha Divine Technique.
The same was true of the Fire Gate Clan, which Jeok Cheongang currently led as Sect Leader.
There’s no way this boy learned the Fire Gate Divine Technique.
For hundreds of years, the Fire Gate Clan had strictly upheld its tradition of passing its teachings down to a single successor.
As the current Sect Leader, Jeok Cheongang knew better than anyone that nothing had ever leaked during that succession.
And yet, Jin Taekyung bore traces of his school…
It must have been that, after all.
The Blazing Flame Divine Pill.
No matter how he considered it, that was the only answer.
Jeok Cheongang smiled bitterly, his expression so lonely that anyone who knew him would have doubted their own eyes.
“So this is how it ended.”
His aged voice echoed hollowly through the shabby guest room, then faded away.
For a long while, Jeok Cheongang’s gaze seemed to pursue something that could neither be seen nor grasped. At last, it settled on Jin Taekyung’s face.
His features were badly contorted, as though he were trapped in a nightmare.
“What is this old man to do with you…?”
At that moment, Jin Taekyung muttered something like a groan.
“Mmm… kimochiii.”
“…”
Kimo… what?
Jeok Cheongang could not understand the word, but something about hearing it made him deeply uncomfortable.
He watched Jin Taekyung twitch over and over, murmuring “kimochi” all the while, then slowly shook his head.
What a strange fellow.
He stayed until “kimochi” turned into “yamete.”
Unable to endure any more, Jeok Cheongang fled the room with goose bumps prickling across his forearms.
…Is this some form of dark art after all?
His suspicions deepened.
When I opened my eyes, I saw a shabby ceiling.
A reddish oil lamp flickered nearby, and darkness had fallen beyond the window. A sigh of relief escaped me before I knew it.
“Pheeeew.”
I was alive.
I had suffered a minor Internal Injury, but I was grateful it was no worse than that.
No, considering that my opponent had been the Fire King, it was nothing short of a miracle.
Had he really not meant to kill me?
No matter what I tried, I was no match for the Fire King. The same went for Cheongpung.
And yet, here I was, lying on a bed…
“Are you awake?”
“Gah!”
I leaped up like a startled carp.
Something crouched in a dark corner had slowly risen to its feet.
“You scared me, you crazy bastard!”
Hyuk Mujin replied gruffly.
“Why are you so surprised? It’s not as if this is your first time seeing my face.”
“Have you looked at your face? You think anyone could get used to that?”
“What’s wrong with my face? I’m handsome enough. My parents even worried about me when I was little.”
“Because they thought you’d have trouble getting through life with that face?”
“No. They were worried I’d be kidnapped because I was too pretty for a boy.”
Was he out of his mind?
With looks like his, his parents should not have worried about him being kidnapped. They should have worried he would grow up to become the kidnapper.
“…Tell them they can stop worrying.”
“I’ll tell them later.”
Hyuk Mujin shuffled toward me, then gasped and collapsed onto the floor.
“Ah, aagh! Hold on.”
“What? What’s wrong?”
His face twisted in pain.
“A cramp. I-I’ve got a cramp.”
“…You’ve really done one thing after another today. Are you sure you’re a martial artist?”
“That can happen when you sit still for too long. And whose fault is it that I was stuck in that corner?”
“How is that my fault?”
“You kept making weird noises. Gimokji, yamakdae.”
The words were carved into my soul.
They were beyond familiar. They felt like old friends. I flinched and asked,
“…I said that?”
“Yes. It gave me goose bumps, so I went outside. Then Great Hero Jeok told me to get back in here and sit quietly unless I wanted to burn to death. He said to report to him the moment you woke up.”
Hyuk Mujin continued with an aggrieved expression.
“He said it might be some kind of dark art, so I should keep my ears covered. But you wouldn’t stop. You just kept going, ‘Oh? Ahh, gimokji, gimokji…’”
“…That’s enough, you bastard.”
This was the greatest humiliation of my life.
No wonder I had felt so electrified when I woke up. I must have been having a pretty good dream.
Just in case, I discreetly slipped a hand beneath the blanket.
Hmm. Clean. No problems.
With one problem taken care of, it was time to turn my attention to another.
In terms of importance, it was incomparably greater than the first.
My life was at stake, after all.
“Where’s that old geezer?”
There was no need to explain who I meant. Hyuk Mujin lowered his voice.
“He’s downstairs, drinking and carousing with Young Hero Cheongpung.”
“He is? For how long?”
“I’m not sure. I only woke up a little while ago myself, but I asked the server, and he said they’d already been at it for more than three shichen.”
I did not even need to focus my internal energy.
My hearing had grown sharper after I reached Peak, and it carried the drunken shouts and singing from downstairs straight to my ears.
Listen to them having the time of their lives.
One was an old man who attacked first and asked questions later. The other was an oblivious idiot who had barged in and caused this whole disaster.
I wanted to smash those villains’ heads in with a liquor bottle and shout, “Justice has been served!” But I held myself back.
…More precisely, I had no choice but to restrain myself.
“Phew.”
Being powerless was a sin. A sin.
As I let out a deep sigh, Hyuk Mujin cautiously spoke up.
“Captain.”
“What?”
“I think we should head downstairs soon.”
“Why the hell would I go down there?”
“Great Hero Jeok said to bring you down as soon as you regained consciousness…”
“Great Hero, my ass. How is that old man a Great Hero?”
“You’d call him Great Hero if he were standing in front of you.”
“…”
He had me there.
But obeying and going downstairs would be no different from leaping straight into a tiger’s jaws.
I began pulling on the clothes draped over the table at the speed of light.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting ready to bolt.”
“What?”
“I said I’m running away. Why? You coming?”
Hyuk Mujin grabbed my arm in alarm.
“Why are you running away?”
“That old geezer could lose his temper and burn me to death at any moment. If you were me, wouldn’t you run?”
“Is this about what happened earlier?”
“If by that, you mean the Head Elder?”
“Yes. If that’s what you’re worried about, Young Hero Cheongpung and I already…”
I firmly cut him off.
“You must have explained everything ages ago. The misunderstanding should be cleared up by now.”
“Oh, you know?”
“Do you think I’m an idiot?”
I had passed out around noon, so at least half a day had gone by. No matter how hot-tempered Jeok Cheongang was, he must have investigated enough to learn the truth.
Cheongpung and Hyuk Mujin would have done their best to clear up the misunderstanding as well.
Hyuk Mujin tilted his head.
“Then isn’t everything fine? You have no reason to run.”
Every second counted.
Pretending to rummage through my clothes, I quickly pulled an item from my Inventory and waved it at him.
“Here’s your reason.”
Flame Divine Palm
Hyuk Mujin examined the cover of the weathered martial arts manual and muttered,
“Ah, shii…”
“All right, here’s a question. What exactly is the relationship between Jopil, who possessed the Fire Gate Clan’s Flame Divine Palm manual, and Jeok Cheongang?”
“…”
“You’re starting to see it too, aren’t you? I’d bet my wrist and my entire fortune that they were master and disciple. What are you willing to bet?”
Hyuk Mujin bet nothing.
Instead, he desperately spread the wings of an imagination full of dreams and hope.
“W-wait a second. The two of them might not be master and disciple.”
“If not master and disciple, then what? Father and son? Considering they both have such shitty tempers, that actually sounds plausible too. Right?”
“Jopil might have stolen Great Hero Jeok’s belongings.”
I snorted hard enough to nearly launch a booger out of my nose.
“You think the Fire King is some harmless old man from the neighborhood? Who would dare steal from that geezer?”
The Fire King had killed a thousand Demonic Cultists because they set fire near his home.
Jopil might have been crazy, but unless he had gotten Botox injected into his liver, he could not even have dreamed of doing such a thing.
After a moment’s hesitation, Hyuk Mujin nodded.
“…Fine. Let’s say Jopil was his Disciple.”
“I’m telling you, they were definitely master and disciple. And if you aren’t coming, let go of me. I’m busy.”
Hyuk Mujin ignored me and stubbornly continued.
“Even if Jopil was Great Hero Jeok’s Disciple, we were only doing our duty. Jopil was the one who attacked us and tried to kill us first.”
“Right. You and Cheongpung will be safe either way, so tell him that for me. I’ve got to get going.”
“Captain!”
“Now, Mujin. Let’s assume you’re right. Let’s say that foul-tempered old man admits his Disciple was at fault and lets the matter go. It’ll never happen, but let’s say he does.”
I peeled his hand away from my arm one finger at a time and asked,
“Then we’d still have to return everything Jopil stole, wouldn’t we?”
Hyuk Mujin nodded vigorously.
“Of course. If we kept it, we’d be asking to burn to death.”
“So what do you think would happen if we told him we couldn’t return it?”
“What? Captain, are you saying you want the Flame Divine Palm for yourself…?”
“Am I insane? Living a long and uneventful life is my philosophy. That’s why I even make my dumps thin and long on purpose!”
Under normal circumstances, he would have made a disgusted face and complained about my dirty talk. But now, he merely kept gulping dryly.
“Then what’s the problem?”
“The problem is that the Flame Divine Palm manual wasn’t the only thing Jopil had.”
I held up three fingers and began folding them down one by one.
“One, the Flame Divine Palm. Two, the Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron sword. And finally, three…”
I folded down the last finger.
“The Blazing Flame Divine Pill.”
Hyuk Mujin’s jaw had already dropped at the mention of the Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron sword. Now he looked at me uncertainly.
“…Do you mean that thing from back then? The one that massively boosts your internal energy but makes your body burst into flames?”
“Yeah. The one I was planning to give you along with the Flame Divine Palm manual a long time ago.”
“Where is it now? Where’s that thing?”
“Mujin.”
My eyes glistening, I gazed out the window toward the north—the direction of the Mount Heng Sword Sect.
“Remember when we went to the Mount Heng Sword Sect?”
“Why are you bringing that up all of a sudden?”
“The Red Wind Band Leader was stronger than I expected. How was I supposed to beat someone who’d defeated Cheol Mubaek and even Jin Mukyung?”
“H-hold on. Then, back then…?”
“Yeah. It worked like a charm.”
With the emotions of a woman three weeks pregnant who had just checked a pregnancy test, I stroked my stomach.
“I put it in here. The Blazing Flame Divine Pill.”
“…”
“They say it’s a secret divine elixir of the Fire Gate Clan. If I want to return it, I’ll have to cut open my stomach and drain the blood.”
“…”
“So stop holding me back. I’m casting off every shackle and restraint in this world and setting out to find a way to survive…”
At that moment, Hyuk Mujin moved with greater agility than ever before.
Tap-tap-tap—whoosh!
Clutching his ever-present satchel to his chest, he launched himself through the wide-open window.
In that moment, I saw a bird.
That bastard.
How dare he try to escape before me?
And he had even taken the satchel containing our silver nyang and food!
“Hey, Hyuk Mujin!”
By the time I hissed the words after him, it was already too late.
Hyuk Mujin glanced back at me with the serene eyes of a man who had attained enlightenment.
Then his body dropped straight down.
“Goddammit.”
I had to get out of there too.
I dashed to the window and was just about to throw myself outside when—
Crack! Thud!
Hyuk Mujin, who had been sprinting away for all he was worth, suddenly crumpled as though he had been shot.
The object that struck him squarely in the temple was one I knew very well.
“…A chicken bone?”
The next moment, an aged voice rose from below.
“You stupid fool. Can’t you tell a chicken from a duck?”
Step. Step.
A small shadow swayed in the light of the lantern hanging by the inn’s entrance.
A wrinkled face suddenly appeared. It looked up at me, my body draped over the window, and grinned.
“Where were you going?”
After witnessing 14,000,605 possible futures, I arrived at the most appropriate answer.
“To the privy.”
“Do you want to shit blood?”
“No.”
Yeah. I knew that would not work.
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